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Listing posts tagged with: mobile marketing

SMS Marketing eBook Published: Be A Mobile Expert

In today’s world, SMS (short message service) needs no introduction. “Text messages,” “messaging,” “texting,” (even “sexting”) are synonymous with modern communication. With consumers going more and more mobile, sending an instantaneous and cross-carrier message is an essential aspect of everyday life. For brands, SMS serves as the backbone of a cohesive mobile marketing strategy.

Given SMS’s ubiquity, direct marketers are seizing an opportunity. Using SMS, brands can engage consumers with practically an infinite type of text and cross-channel media. SMS provides a vast set of benefits applicable for all industries, including low cost messaging, high ROI, instant feedback and a vast set of trackable analytics.

Capturing these benefits, however, comes down to one thing (just like anything in marketing): execution. Waterfall’s SMS Marketing eBook, from the Quick6 eBook Series, explains this execution in detail and how marketers can build a road map that leads toward success.

Download the entire SMS Marketing eBook here.

Published February 1, 2012 – 4:15 pm by kane

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Comments: 1 Comment

Mobile Marketing For Corporate Local Businesses

So today my colleague was a in a Starbucks* in San Francisco. Clearly a person at a Starbucks in San Francisco isn’t big news. This particular trip, however, was interesting for two, contrasting, reasons:

  • He saw a beautifully branded QR code on an in-store display promoting the purchase of Starbucks bags of coffee. Scanning the QR code was stellar: it connected to a mobile optimized page where he could vote for his favorite roast, watch a movie, post to social networks, make comments, i.e. everything he could ever want.
  • As my colleague held up his phone to scan the code, he heard an authoritative outburst from behind the counter: “Sir! Are you interested in buying a bag of coffee!?” (my colleague: “No thank you”). “Well then why are you taking pictures of the coffee bags?!?!?”

Here’s the rub (in case it’s not already obvious). Starbucks corporate has a firm grasp on the intricacies of mobile marketing. Starbucks local, in this case, had a mere finger’s touch on the same concept.

Just to be clear, the issue goes far beyond QR codes. Take SMS marketing, for example, in particular mobile coupons: Those businesses running coupon campaigns might have to ask store clerks to check phones to verify a code’s validity. If the coupon has the brand’s short code as a sender? Great, the coupon is legit. But without a short code sender (for example another phone number or long code), you’ve got a cut and pasted or forwarded message (of course you can overcome this risk using unique codes). Users having trouble pulling rebate information from an app? Local-level employees may have to be ready to give people a step-by-step on finding downloaded apps on the home screen.

And that, folks, is the sound of opportunity knocking. Corporate/local businesses are everywhere in the United States, from banks, to QSRs, electronics stores and fitness centers. Given mobile’s rapid rise to the top of the digital marketing ecosystem, intelligent marketers are going to have to find ways to educate their local constituencies in order to achieve maximum mobile success.

Of course, there are tons of ways to achieve this objective, especially considering that communicating corporate initiatives to the local branches has been on corporate/local businesses’ plate since their inception. Ideas include newsletters, company meetings, corporate social networks, internal mobile marketing, internal strategy wikis/websites, a dedicated team for communication, etc. Each company, of course, has to choose the approach that works best for its particular culture and brand.

What has been your experience with corporate/local mobile marketing? Any similar experiences? Any different ones? Please let us know by posting to the comments.

(Some background context for those that don’t follow these things: Starbucks is an innovator in mobile marketing, having launched everything from SMS campaigns to mobile apps and a comprehensive mobile payment system (one example). In addition, Starbucks is a corporate/local brand in that there is a corporate Starbucks based in Washington State that runs more than 5500 local branches located throughout the world).

Published January 27, 2012 – 9:20 am by kane

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SMS Marketing And Dynamic Data Management

Today we look at another one of SMS marketing’s intricacies: dynamic data management. Somewhat more complex than integrating zip codes or unique codes into message flows, but that’s what makes working at a technology company fun. Within dynamic data management, we’re going to explore two concepts

in particular: making SMS conversational and integrating with external data inputs.

Conversational SMS

As we all know, SMS continues to run rampant in the U.S. One of the main reasons for this we can find out by talking to anyone who uses text messaging: it’s easy to have an interactive conversation, oftentimes even a better experience than calling up someone on the phone.

The challenge for brands then is to replicate this experience for their particular audience (shades of the Turing Test here). Fortunately, integrating dynamic data management with SMS allows for this type of functionality. Here’s one example: imagine that a brand wanted to engage folks during the holidays where long lines are the name of the game. Rather than making consumers wait without respite, what about offering them an interactive conversation that replicated the experience of texting back and forth with friends? Here’s an example message flow:

  • (mo)  bored person texts BORED to 44144
  • (mt)  You must be 21 or older to participate. Reply with your birthdate in the following format MMDDYYYY (e.g. 11051973)
  • (mo)  02051973
  • (mt)  Get Ready for The Waiting Game. Rply SKIP to get the next Q. HELP for help. Msg&Data Rates May Apply. More: URL.com
  • (mt) What’s the funniest thing that someone is buying right now? Rply SKIP ToGetNextQ
  • (mo)  I see my friend Kurt buying a Litter Robot, but he’s a freak!
  • (mt)  What’s the weirdest thing that you bought today? Rply SKIP ToGetNextQ
  • (mo) Deluxe Prism Glasses

As you might imagine, brands can offer as many questions as they see fit. It’s also easy to design the application so that a unique mobile number won’t receive the same question more than once.

But where it gets really interesting are the integration points. Each response can be written to an xml file to do with whatever a brand or agency wanted, whether it be post to a website, use for future product ideas, post to social networks, etc. Brands could even dynamically update users’ profiles with how many questions they answered and use this information to better engage subscribers with SMS messaging in the future. And it’s all possible because of the ability to customize data management with SMS.

External Action Integration

Similar in execution, SMS’s dynamic data management capabilities can be used not just in conjunction with an SMS conversation, but in conjunction with information pulled from other user actions. For example, imagine a product release that took place over the course of one month. Throughout the release, parts of the product could be unveiled each day online (e.g. through advanced searching) and offline (e.g. on billboards or signage). Participants in the campaign could try to find these product pieces wherever they might be hidden through a type of decoding system. Once decoded, people could then text in to see if they were successful. Here’s what the message flow might look like:

  • (mo)  player texts CODE to 44144
  • (mt)  You’re the 1st person to decode today’s product piece. Well done, you’re officially on top of your game. Txt Help for help. Txt Stop to end. Msg&Data rates may apply

Again, similar to above, this information could be added to each participant’s profile and used for future marketing purposes. For our example project, the success information could be aggregated over time, published to a website for consumers to view (updated in real time), and the sponsoring brand could offer incentives according to end of campaign results.

I guess where I am going with this is that SMS’s dynamic data management capabilities really allow for the creation of some amazing applications that go beyond a simple send an SMS message to a consumer. It’s up to creative minds to push SMS to its limits. Doing so will distinguish campaigns from others in terms of creativity, uniqueness and, ultimately, competitive advantage.

Have other ideas of cool dynamic data management campaigns? We’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Published January 26, 2012 – 9:41 am by kane

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Comments: 2 Comments

77177 Campaign Spotlight: Sundance Film Festival and Finding North

Exciting news today: TakePart and Participant Media just announced their latest mobile campaign – set to go live during the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.

The campaign is in support of TakePart and Participant Media’s latest film, Finding North. In a long line of brilliantly executed activist films, including Inconvenient Truth, The Cove and Waiting For “Superman”, Finding North focuses on the impact of hunger in the US. The film details how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and how exactly it can be solved once and for all: the American public just has to decide – as it has in the past – that making healthy food available and affordable is in the country’s best interests.

The film’s mobile call to action, text NORTH to 77177, will be featured just before the film’s end credits. Those that text in will receive personalized stats on hunger in their state, making the film’s widespread message relevant to each specific individual at the local level. The initial call to action will also subscribe participants for ongoing updates, where they will have multiple options and opportunities to take the film’s message a step further and push its ideas into reality.

This interactive, customer lifetime value approach to mobile marketing, similar to successful and meaningful campaigns that Participant Media/TakePart have run in the past, is one of the big reasons why Participant Media and TakePart are such leaders in the space.

Showings at the Sundance Film Festival take place from January 22 to January 28 (seats are filling up fast so hurry to get tickets if you are going to be on location). If you do see the film, or any other examples of effective film making and marketing, we would love to hear from you via the comments below.

Published January 20, 2012 – 4:50 pm by kane

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How SOPA & PIPA Affects Mobile Marketing

January 18th, 2012: Blackout Day. By now you’ve probably heard of the public outcry against the SOPA & PIPA bills as leaders of the free internet (including Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Facebook) take up the march against them.

So what exactly are SOPA and PIPA?

In order to understand how these bills affect your mobile marketing initiatives, it’s important to have a bit of background on the issue first.

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is an anti-piracy/censorship bill currently making its way through Congress. It gives law enforcement and content creators (i.e. the entertainment industry) the ability to seek court orders against websites they deem are enabling or facilitating the infringement of copyrighted material.

PIPA, the Protect IP Act, calls for curbing access to ”rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods”, giving the U.S. government and ISPs the power to block access to “infringing” domain names.

What’s the big deal?

In a nutshell, both pieces of legislation were introduced with the intent of giving law enforcement and content creators increased ability to protect their intellectual property rights (i.e. copyrights).

Sounds legitimate, right? However, as Reddit.com puts it, “The devil, as they say, is in the details. PROTECT IP and SOPA will cause too much collateral damage, have a high potential for abuse, and won’t even be that effective at stopping the crimes they target.”

Depending on who is suing, court orders could bar online advertising networks (e.g. Google AdSense) and online payment facilitators (e.g. PayPal) from doing business with “infringing” sites, as well as bar online search engines from linking to those sites. Sites such as Google, Facebook, eBay, YouTube, which offer an infinite amount of services and proliferation of content, are in danger of becoming virtually unable to function.

Goodbye, Social and SEO

Perhaps it’s difficult to see the effects this may directly have on SMS marketing. However, think of it as a domino effect. Mobile marketing has been all but married with online media in the recent years. It is a deeply seated relationship that continues to grow and is becoming crucial for the success of any company’s growth, big or small, in this day and age. Marketing initiatives that depend heavily on Facebook’s & Twitter’s viral sharing components, video hosting on YouTube, and search engine optimization (SEO) etc. will be threatened by SOPA and PIPA.

Copyright Protection Gone Rogue

With SOPA and PIPA, law enforcement will theoretically be given unchecked power to block any site they feel is infringing on copyright. There doesn’t appear to be due process once a claim has been made or an appeal process. This makes everyone a potential red target. Your site can be fine and dandy today, but tomorrow, it may no longer be accessible.

As both are ultimately censorship bills, potential lawsuits will also prompt many web site hosting services to move out of the U.S. This in turn leads to negative effects on venture capital, as entrepreneurs and investors will turn funds away from small business, startups, you name it, in fear of spending more money on legal issues than actual innovation and growth (read more @ http://www.marketingtechblog.com/what-is-sopa/).

I’m an interested party in the mobile marketing business, as I’m sure many of you are as well, and this development brings to mind the revised CTIA audit process that was launched last October. I remember when my inbox went from receiving 3 audits total to 30 in one day, and the corresponding industry outrage over the legitimacy of the audits.

In my opinion, outrage over SOPA and PIPA feels similar – if anything worse as they affect the internet as we know it on a much larger scale. Sure, people criticize SOPA and PIPA for being poorly written. In my opinion, however, not only will they both be ineffective in the goal of stopping piracy, but also far too overreaching to the point that they could disrupt the architecture of the internet by tampering with the registry of domain names (resulting in decreased security and stability).

I, for one, will be staying on top of the progress of these bills – I encourage others to do the same. And if you have any additional thoughts about SOPA and PIPA’s impact on mobile marketing, please feel free to post your comments below.

Further Reading:

Published January 18, 2012 – 4:24 pm by Esther

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Comments: 2 Comments

QR Codes and Mobile Apps

Some good stats today on two mobile marketing channels: QR codes and mobile apps. They caught my eye not just for the information that they shared, but because of the conclusions that the authors drew. Let’s take a look:

QR Codes:

eMarketer released stats on QR codes, their recognizability and why consumers are scanning them. The first, entitled “U.S. Internet Users’ Familiarity With QR Codes, October 2011,” breaks down a key difference between how consumers perceive QR Codes:

Percentage of consumers that have heard of QR codes:

Percentage of consumers that can identify a QR code when shown one:

I think what’s clear is that the term “QR Codes” might not be the most understandable thing in the world for consumers, but the opposite holds true for QR codes themselves. Can think of tons of parallels here, but for some reason the old “your epidermis is showing” joke comes to mind.

The eMarketer study goes on to list a number of impressive QR code stats, including:

  • 90% of the top 100 magazines have featured at least one mobile barcode since May 2011, compared to 9% in November of 2010.
  • Presently 5% of magazine ad pages have a 2D Bar Code
  • This widespread magazine use “doesn’t even touch presence of QR codes on outdoor advertising, in-store signage and packaging, or business cards.”

The last figure from eMarketer breaks down the reasons U.S. Smartphone users have scanned QR codes as of October 2011:

One point to note before reading too much into this stat: it’s misleading. Two reasons why: (1) consumers can only scan QR codes that are promoted in a specific way and (2) the overwhelming majority of QR codes link to get more information (see the artofthecta.com for some examples). Thus, of course more people scan QR codes to get more information. That’s why I like the conclusion of the eMarketer article: “But as awareness develops, the novelty factor may be in danger of wearing off. Marketers will have to prove there is valuable information in store for QR code scanners—perhaps a coupon or exclusive content—or those who scan a few times out of curiosity may not develop a scanning habit.” That, folks, summarizes moving “beyond the Novelty of the New.”

Mobile Apps:

Apps are all the rage these days as marketers love the beautiful rich media experience they offer. However, marketers need to carefully evaluate their app strategy. According to data from Mashable, consumers don’t like shopping via branded apps:

As the study says, “consumers show a greater preference — by up to 20 times — for browsing the Web to shop rather than using branded apps.” I find this data interesting in that it proves something that I intuitively assumed, though this is the first time I have seen data around this “gut feeling.”

Bottom line: brands need to find ways to connect consumers to websites and mobile sites for commerce reasons, giving credence to the assertion that an effective SMS, mobile web, and mobile app strategy requires a cross-channel CRM approach. Not an over-reliance on one channel vs. the other.

Published January 18, 2012 – 2:14 pm by kane

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22022 Campaign Spotlight: Neebo’s Wanna Vegas Sweepstakes

Special shout out today goes to our friends at Neebo for their “Wanna Vegas?” mobile sweepstakes. We think it’s an excellent example of how to run a meaningful and effective campaign. Here’s a quick rundown of some reasons why:

1) Clear, memorable and relevant Keyword/Short Code Combo

Neebo’s chosen mobile call to action (CTA for short), Text VEGAS2012 to 22022, is extremely effective. The keyword, VEGAS2012, is easy to remember, relevant to the campaign and wont get autoedited by autocorrect. The short code 22022 also is easy to remember, type in on any phone (user error prevention) and repeat to friends (viral benefits). A good litmus test is to imagine a keyword/short code combo being broadcast on the radio, TV, and print without any added confusion. This CTA holds up very well.

2) Effective incentive that’s relevant to the target audience

Effective mobile marketing campaigns require strong incentives. Neebo’s campaign presents an excellent example of an incentive that is not just compelling, but also extremely relevant to the company’s target audience. I mean, what purchaser of textbooks on a college campus wouldn’t be interested in a spring break trip to one of the most fun places in the country (and tell their friends as much)?

3) Dedicated promotion across marketing channels

Neebo’s campaign demonstrates the effectiveness of promoting a campaign across multiple communication channels, with calls to action going out across email, Facebook, Twitter and in-store banners at all 127 off-campus bookstore locations. Making a concerted effort to publish campaigns across a brand’s communication networks instills trust from the audience, maximizes viral potential and ensures significant campaign engagement.

4) Added level of interactivity

As part of the promotion, participants can draw a “Wanna Vegas?” card from card decks at the store. A store associate will then scan the card upon purchase and the purchaser instantly receives a spring break prize (e.g. candy, sunglasses, beach towels, headphones, playing cards, gear, swag, etc.). They are then encouraged to take the card with them and text in to win a trip. This element of interactivity and gamification are excellent best practices for mobile if they can be integrated seamlessly into a campaign. Mobile is an interactive medium where consumers respond positively to compelling interaction points that are relevant to the campaign.

5) Included personalization as part of the marketing process

As part of the promotion, Neebo is using brand agents at stores to go out on and around campuses to provide students with handout CTAs. This personal touch brings the campaign directly to its desired audience, delicately balancing both push and pull marketing tactics.

6) Clear, compelling, easy to digest call to action design 

The CTA for the campaign is clear, easy to read, compelling and artfully designed. This “secret sauce” is a must have for campaigns to see significant success (please see artofthecta.com for more example CTAs to learn from).

Again, hats off to our friends at Neebo for their mobile marketing campaign’s design and execution. If you see other campaigns that strike you as being particularly effective please post them to the comments.

Published January 16, 2012 – 1:06 pm by kane

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15 Mobile Marketing CRM Stats For 2012

A few studies (from Experian, Flurry, Mediapost, Nielsen) caught my eye this week. They all examine data from late 2011. We’re going to go at these quick hits style:

  1. 51% of consumers are OK with advertising on their mobile devices if they can access content for free.
  2. Texting is the number one app on Android devices, occupying 14% of users’ time – browsing #2 (10%), calling #3 (6%) and social networking/email next (5%).
  3. 36% of respondents from 56 countries own a smartphone – another 21% have decided to purchase one.
  4. People spend an average of 94 minutes per day on mobile applications. 79% of these 94 minutes are spent on games (49%) and social networking (30%).
  5. 33% of U.S. mobile customers say they prefer mobile offers by text message over mobile Web (21%), apps (11%) and voice mail (8%).
  6. 51% of U.S. consumers prefer receiving promotions on their phone only from advertisers, 8% only from mobile carriers, 27% open to both.
  7. 50% of people in the U.S. say they haven’t seen an advertisement that they want to receive on their mobile phone.
  8. 36% of consumers plan to use their phone for shopping-related activities; of those, 59% plan to make mobile purchases.
  9. 28% of consumers perform shopping activities from their mobile phone in brick-and-mortar retail stores.
  10. 9 in 10 American adults now have mobile phones, up from seven in 10 in 2006 (+21%). 1 in 5 kids ages 6 to 11 now have a mobile phone.
  11. 33% more people used an SMS promotion in 2010 versus 2009.
  12. 23% more people used an SMS coupon in 2010 versus 2009.
  13. On average, in a given period of 30 days, 76% of people have sent a text message, 72% taken photos, 39% accessed internet, 21% accessed GPS, 15% social networked, 14% used business email and 13% downloaded an application from their mobile phone.
  14. 24% of people check prices on their phone before making offline purchases.
  15. Home is the most popular location for consumers to engage in mobile shopping.

Here are some of my gut reactions:

  • Mobile marketing is still in its early adoption (or at best early majority) phase in the US.
  • Mobile marketing misfires (e.g. SMS spam, useless offers) have put a bad taste in some consumers’ mouths. Marketers need to work on execution.
  • The 94 minutes figure for average time spent on apps appears misleading. I’d be willing to bet that the average 94 minutes figure is a result of heavy users (e.g. 200 minutes) being combined with light users (0 minutes) to arrive at a 94 minutes figure (for you stats folks: don’t think app usage follows a normal distribution).
  • SMS should be the backbone of a mobile marketing strategy due to its widespread use and user-activity penetration.
  • Companies should think through a strategy for mobile that includes in-home, rather than just assuming that the only time people are on their phone is out in the world.

What are yours?

Published January 12, 2012 – 4:27 am by kane

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Comments: 9 Comments

Augmenting SMS Marketing With Unique Codes

Last week, in case you missed it, we analyzed how zip codes can improve SMS marketing strategy. Today, let’s look at a different facet of SMS marketing often overlooked due to its complexity: unique codes.

For the uninitiated, unique codes power several SMS marketing applications, including SMS coupons and gamifying SMS marketing. Let’s take a look at some specific examples:

To augment person-person sales

For any business that has field sales representatives, unique SMS codes offer a powerful way to improve the selling process. Here’s an example message flow:

  • (mo)  rep texts MYCODE to 44144
  • (mt)  Please reply back with your five-digit seller id, e.g. 03001
  • (mo)  12345
  • (mt)  here’s your code: 54321 Please tell your customer to go to ourwebsite.com to redeem.

As you can probably imagine, the integration points are what makes this type of unique code generation so powerful. Each sales rep can be assigned a specific number of codes (you can even include another mt where the rep can check/receive their remaining code balance in real time), which he/she can use to reach his/her quota. Concurrently, management can track the distribution and redemption of these codes in real time in order to see each individual’s and team’s success in order to increase revenue for the company.

Breaking the 4th wall in video games

Now, I’m not a hard core gamer by any means, but I’ll never forget an in-game twist that occurs in the game X-Men for Sega Genesis. Basically, the game asks a player to press the actual console reset button in order to reset an in-game computer. Normally, pressing reset during a game would be blasphemy since you would lose all your progress, but a simple programming innovation provides a compelling way to bridge virtual reality with actual reality. From an SMS marketing standpoint, consider the following message flow:

  • (mo)  gamer texts CODE to 44144
  • (mt)  thanks for texting in. your key and instructions will follow shortly. text STOP to end. HELP 4 info. msg&dataratesmayapply.
  • (mt)  what platform do you want the game skin on?
    a. 360
    b. ps3
    c. pc
    reply with a, b or c
  • (mo)  a
  • (mt)  your unique key: 123456789
    instructions:
    1. go 2 root menu of game
    2. select extras
    3. select exclusive content
    4. enter unique code

Here, you can imagine another application of breaking the 4th wall that would be cool for gamers, similar to the X-Men example (without being restricted to a console). Gamer sees an SMS call to action in a video game (that’s part of the game world) that allows them to interact with a game using their own phone (the real world).

Dynamic Field Insertion

A third cool application for unique codes is not the code itself, but rather the information pertaining to the code. For example,

  • (mo) customer texts FREEMEAL to 44144 (on November 3)
  • (mt)  This offer expires 11-5. Show msg@participating stores for 1 FREE MEAL w/any purchase. Reply OFFER 4 future deals. While supplies last. 1 per person/visit.

We added the bold above (can’t bold SMS messages unfortunately). The idea is that you can customize that expiration date to be whatever you want. Maybe it’s two minutes/hours/days/years (well, maybe not years) after the person texts in. Maybe they get the message one day after they text in and are instructed that it expires six hours later. This type of functionality allows you to expand the flexibility and usefulness of given promotions.

Integrating With Websites

A final application for unique codes bridges the physical world with the online one. In this case, a person texts in and then uses a unique code online to make/complete/enhance a particular online purchase/action. For example:

  • (mo)  user texts CODE to 44144
  • (mt)  It’s possible to do your part. To sign-up for updates & receive $15 to help a a project in your area, pls. REPLY with your ZIP code.
  • (mo)  94110
  • (mt)  Welcome to The Mobile Updates! We’ll send no more than 10 msg/mo. Text STOP to end, HELP for info. Msg & Data Rates may apply. Terms at msgme.com.
  • (mt)  Welcome! To redeem your $15 voucher:
    1. Visit website.com and pick a project to sponsor
    2. At checkout, enter code: C7362GFM
    Expires 12/31/12

Using a unique code promotion such as the above, a brand has the ability to track offline engagement, online engagement, and future interaction as the end user/brand relationship grows and grows over time. A perfect best practice for SMS, digital and interactive marketing.

As we’ve stated in this space, the true power of SMS marketing is in the ingenuity of figuring out the best campaign for a brand. Pushing functionality to its limits using applications like unique codes and/or dynamic fields can be instrumental in realizing campaigns’ maximum potential.

Published January 9, 2012 – 1:32 pm by kane

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